The Hindu Rethinks Its Ad Policy
The editor of the Hindu newspaper described an ad extolling Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi as “atrocious” and said that in future it would not carry such ads on the front.
The Wall Street Journal wrote on Monday about the effusive ad that appeared as a full-page on the front of the New Delhi edition of the paper on Jan. 1.
The ad, placed by Tamil Nadu businessman and Congress politician H. Vasanthakumar, told Mrs. Gandhi that her followers were “ever at your feet.”
Readers who saw the ad appear to have complained to the Hindu editor, Siddharth Varadarajan, who posted this response on Facebook on Wednesday.
“To all those who messaged me about the atrocious front page ad in The Hindu’s Delhi edition [http://on.wsj.com/tLKSv3] on Jan 1, my view as Editor is that this sort of crass commercialisation compromises the image and reputation of my newspaper,” said Mr. Varadarajan. “We are putting in place a policy to ensure the front page is not used for this sort of an ad again.”
Many readers praised the move, though some said it wasn’t the nature of the ad that had bothered them.
“Thanks for your quick positive response. Looking at some of the other comments, I am not talking about the contents of that ad as such,” wrote Santhanam Vaidya. “I would like to see Hindu front page with topical headline news items, with right bottom quarter for an advt (the usual Hindu way). I do not want to see massive full page ad (be it Vasant or Volkswagon).”
A few disagreed though.
“It is wrong on the part of The Hindu to prevent people from advertising what ever they want to as long as long they are legal,” wrote Vishal Pratap Singh. “About the ad it self well people are far clear sighted and they will come to their own conclusions.”
Looks like Mr. Vasanthakumar will have to look for an alternate use for his bonus ad space in the future. The Tamil Nadu businessman told the Wall Street Journal that since he didn’t have any shops in Delhi, he decided to use the Delhi ad space he got as part of an advertising package to promote his appliance chain to “praise madam” instead.
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Via: India Real Time
